Live It Well

Not a lot of chat today as I've been plagued by power cuts whilst composing this post and it's accompanying selection. Only brief ones, but they've knocked out the PC every time and it's taken increasingly longer to get everything up and running again. And it's raining again.

"Arse!" as Father Jack was inclined to say, well, shout.

In that spirit, here's some joie de vivre courtesy of a dozen songs that have already brightened up my 2026; some only just so as they were released for Bandcamp Friday.

Again, I've found myself with an embarrassment of riches and have compiled 12 of them for your listening pleasure today, and this weekend.

Spare Snare's cover of Say My Name by Destiny's Child has been knocking around since 2001, but it's just reappeared on brand new compilation, Love Your Later Stuff, so it gets in on a technicality. That, and it segues beautifully into the dub of Jezebell's Turn It Yes by Justin Robertson's Five Green Moons.

It was a chance check in with the official Gavin Friday website that led me to the David Holmes remix of The Church Of Love, which snuck out earlier this year. 

And if you enjoy the song by Al MacKenzie (D:Ream) which gives today's post it's title (well, half of it at least) I will be coming back to the Evil Acid Barons album, which is an early contender for compilation of the year... and only a handful of tracks have been released so far.

1) Protector: SAULT (Chapter 1)

2) Life Is Short, Live It Well (Vocal Mix): Al MacKenzie (Evil Acid Barons)

3) Program 70: Pye Corner Audio (Program 70 EP)

4) Love To Watch U: A_M_B_O_S_S (Machine X Human EP)

5) Nothing Ever (Tom Sharkett Remix): GLOK / Timothy Clerkin (Alliance Remixed)

6) Surrounded By Spies (Richard Norris Dub): Placebo (Surrounded By Spies EP)

7) Song Of Siraba (Cosmikuro Remix): A Space Age Freak Out (Song Of Siraba EP)

8) My Electric Dreams (Airsine Remix): Pete Bones (My Electric Dreams EP)

9) The Church Of Love (David Holmes Remix): Gavin Friday (The Church Of Love And Dancing EP)

10) Say My Name (Cover of Destiny's Child): Spare Snare (2001) (Love Your Later Stuff)

11) Turn It Yes (Justin Robertson's Five Green Moons Dub): Jezebell (Turn It Yes Remixes Vol. 1 EP)

12) Môgôya (BOM Nation Remix): Namian Sidibé (Remix EP)

Live It Well (1:07:07) (GD) (M)

Buy, Buy, Baby Baby, Good Buy

Everything is so laggy today (me included) that I'm going to dispense with the usual chit chat and just say that it's Bandcamp Friday and this half dozen at least are going through my checkout.

Why don't you, um, check 'em out yourself?

Hopefully, normal service will resume on Saturday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Praise You

Namian Sidibé hails from Bamako, the capital of Mali, and released her debut self-titled album in May this year. 

 

Being on Sahel Sounds, a label that has frequently featured on fellow blogs par excellence 27 Leggies and Unthought Of, Though, Somehow and subsequently here in the past couple of years, I suspected that I was in for a treat and I wasn't disappointed.

 

Presented in the promo as "Another side of modern Malian praise songs", I've subsequently discovered that Namian Sidibé's first album is something of a departure for the artist herself.

 

Were I not an ageing, creaking sack of flesh and bones on an inexorable stumble to obsolescence, I might already be familiar with Namian as one of her 527,500 (and counting) followers on Tik Tok, regularly entertained by her singing and her rather wonderful wardrobe. But I am and I'm not, so it was my regular shopping visit to Sahel Sounds on Bandcamp Friday that introduced me to Namian Sidibé and her music. Or "another side" of it, at least.

 

The album is 8 songs and a little over half an hour, recorded at home and accompanied by her cousin Jules Diabaté on acoustic guitar. There's an earthy ambience throughout: you can feel the ambience of her environment, the sounds of traffic, people and the occasional mobile phone bleeding into the overall sound. Jules' playing is pitched to the required level of providing a simple framework for the songs, never showy and leaving plenty of room for Namian's voice.

 

Squinting at a grainy scan of the vinyl album's sleevenotes on Discogs - I bought the digital version - opening song Souna appears to be about the titular character, "a famous maker of fetish objects" who lived in Ségou. He also apparently practised "occult sciences" and helped people all over the world. This is one of many praise songs that have continued long after his death.

 

Djougouya Mangni is "a general warning not to attach evil to the good" and "to be good once and for all", which I can get with.

  

Whilst the basic stylings of the songs means the album skirts close to the borders of repetition at times, Namian Sidibé's vocal performance imbues each song with an individual character and drive. This is even more evident with the closing song, an a capella version of Môgôya, just Namian's voice and Bamako's background hum. 

 

Môgôya "describes the duplicitous, hypocritical nature of human beings" and "their propensity for destruction, harm and stubbornness". Not quite the lyrical theme that I was expecting, but it's a moving listen and a testament to Namian's voice that I've frequently pressed repeat on this song as a single listen just isn't enough.

  

Here's a version of Môgôya from 2020. Still fairly restrained in respect of the musical palette, but personally not a patch on the a capella version.

 

Last month, Namian Sidibé released the video for a new song, Furu. Trusting in a free online tool, I believe furu translates as marriage. The narrative of the video itself may also be a clue...

All good stuff, but there's something about Namian Sidibé's "unplugged' debut that resonated with me and has borne repeated listens since the summer. Bandcamp Friday is here again in a couple of days, when Sahel Sounds make their catalogue available as a name your price purchase. I'd recommend adding Namian Sidibé's album to your shopping cart.